President Barack Obama has dispatched 20 U.S. military personnel to the Central African Republic to help reopen the American Embassy there.

The embassy was temporarily shuttered in late 2012 due to security concerns in a country wracked by violent conflict. The force deployment is seen as a step toward reopening the mission, though the White House did not say when that would happen.

Obama alerted Congress to the deployment in a letter Thursday. He says the force arrived Wednesday and would stay until in the country until the security situation allows more traditional embassy guards and security personnel to arrive.

Michelle Obama shared some thoughts about women versus men during a conversation with former First Lady Laura Bush at the U.S Africa Leaders Summit in Washington D.C.Obama explained that as First Lady it was important to remember to use the position to highlight their personal interests.

“We can’t waste this spotlight, it is temporary and life is short and change is needed and women are smarter than men. And the men can’t complain because you’re outnumbered today,” she said as the audience laughed.

Obama cited Laura Bush as a First Lady that acted with a level of “grace and kindness and compassion.”

“You come to this with a temperament,” she said. “Some people are shy and never want the limelight other people are much more outgoing, and may be a bit more aggressive and able to withstand the heat of the spotlight that shines on us.”

The First Lady said that she was aware of all the criticisms that came with the office.

“It’s not about amassing power, it’s taking some of those hits and continuing to do the work even when it’s painful and sometimes unappreciated,” she said.

“First spouses, we don’t choose this position, we just happen to be in it,” she said.

A program designed to foster a new generation of young African leaders will be renamed after former South African President Nelson Mandela, the White House said Sunday.

President Barack Obama, who has said he was one of the untold millions of people around the world who were inspired by Mandela's life, is set to announce the name change at a town hall-style event on Monday in Washington with several hundred young leaders from across sub-Saharan Africa.

The youngsters are participating in the inaugural Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, part of the broader Young African Leaders Initiative that Obama launched in 2010 to support a new generation of leadership there. The fellowship is being renamed as a tribute to Mandela, who died last December at age 95.

Obama announced the fellowship during a stop in South Africa last summer. It connects young African leaders to leadership training opportunities at top U.S. universities.

In remarks at Monday's event, Obama also was announcing new public-private partnerships to create more programs for young African leaders, including four regional leadership centers across Africa, online classes and other resources, the White House said.

Mandela spent 27 years in jail under apartheid, South Africa's former system of white minority rule, before eventually leading his country through a difficult transition to democracy. In 1994, he became the first democratically elected leader of a post-apartheid South Africa.

This week's events with the next generation of young African leaders are a lead-in to the inaugural U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, being held Aug. 4-6 in Washington. About 50 African leaders are expected to attend what the White House says will be the largest gathering any U.S. president has held with African heads of state and government.

Kenyans account for almost 10 percent of the 500 young Africans chosen to take part in a leadership summit in Washington hosted by President Barack Obama.

A group meeting on Monday with the US head of state opens a three-day series of events that includes a discussion with First Lady Michelle Obama on girls' education in Africa.

Secretary of State John Kerry, members of the US Congress and other government officials are also making presentations at an event that caps the six-week-long Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) sponsored by the State Department.

President Obama launched the YALI programme in 2010 as a way of helping groom Africa's future leaders while seeking to ensure they propagate positive views of the United States.

The 500 participants in this year's initiative, including 46 Kenyans, were chosen from 50,000 applicants from all over Africa. “That says to us that there is a huge, huge need” for the opportunities offered through the programme, observed Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the State Department's top Africa official.

Fellowships

Half of those in the initiative's current cohort are women, and all participants are between the ages of 25 and 35. Each of sub-Saharan Africa's 49 countries is represented in the group.

Magdalene Kelel, a project leader in the Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya, was chosen for her work on HIV/Aids, youth advocacy and women's self-reliance. When she returns to Kenya, Ms Kelel plans to work on promoting young persons' involvement in democratic processes, according to the YALI website.

Like each of the other YALI participants, Ms Kelel was awarded a fellowship to study either business development, civic leadership or public management at one of 20 US universities during the past six weeks.

Some of the young Africans will be invited to remain in the US for an additional eight weeks to complete internships at businesses, government agencies or non-governmental organisations.

A total of $10 million will also be made available in the form of grants to help the initiative's alumni start their own businesses or social enterprises in Africa and to build a network of young African leaders.

In a Monday town hall with participants, the President will announce that the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders will be renamed in honor of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

With 60 percent of Africa's population under the age of 35, young people stand to play as important a role in their respective nations' success there as anywhere else in the world.

On Monday, 500 of them including 15 Liberians and among other African nationalities, who have spent the summer honing their skills at U.S. universities, will have an audience with the President.

Obama will hold a town hall with the inaugural participants in Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, an initiative he announced in 2013 as part of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), White House officials say. The program is designed to connect 25-35 year olds identified as "Sub-Saharan Africa’s most promising young leaders ages 25 to 35" with "established records of accomplishment in promoting innovation and positive change in their organizations, institutions, communities, and countries" to leadership training opportunities at American universities.

The meeting with these emerging leaders will include a tribute to an iconic one. In addition to announcing new public-private partnerships to support the fellow, White House officials say the President will announce that the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders program will be renamed in honor of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

While the fellows' Washington, D.C. placements conclude at the end of July, Monday's town hall doesn't represent the end of their participation in the program. YALI regional coordinators based at U.S. Embassies throughout Africa are expected to provide fellows with tools to support their continued work when they return to their home countries.

The YALI Summit, taking place at Washington D.C.'s Omni Shoreham. precedes next week’s inaugural U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the largest gathering any U.S. President has held with African heads of state and government.